UCLA Bruins tight end Caleb Wilson (81) against the Texas A&M Aggies in the first half of a NCAA college football game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

UCLA tight end Caleb Wilson (far right) celebrates after his mom Tina and sister Colby after his father Chris (far left) won the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles. (Photo courtesy Wilson family)

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UCLA tight end Caleb Wilson’s father Chris Wilson (right) played defensive line at Oklahoma, where he met Tina, before becoming a coach. (Photo courtesy Wilson family)

The pregame theatrics were different when Chris Wilson took the field at Oklahoma, but the energy remains the same.

Electricity pulses whenever the Sooners take the field, whether it was in the late ’80s when Chris, the father of UCLA tight end Caleb Wilson, ran out of the tunnel at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, or this weekend when Chris returns to his alma mater to watch his son take on his Sooners.

“When my husband used to run out of that tunnel, it was unbelievable,” Tina Wilson said of Chris, a former Oklahoma defensive lineman who helped the Eagles to a Super Bowl last year as the defensive line coach. “And now Caleb’s going to experience that on the other end. It’s going to be crazy.”

Of all the places the Wilsons lived while chasing Chris’ coaching career – something like 12 states in total, Tina estimates – Norman, Okla., was the hardest to leave. That’s why the family is looking forward to returning when the Bruins play the No. 6 Sooners at 10 a.m. PT Saturday.

The thought of returning to Norman, where Chris played from 1988-91 and coached from 2005-09, brings a giddy smile to Caleb’s face. The Sooners have sold out more than 100 consecutive games. Caleb wants to feel the energy of the crowd again and play where Heisman Trophy winners played and national championship-winning teams battled. He learned early on what it means to be around an elite football university – and expects that everywhere he goes now.

“I just have a high standard for everything in terms of football, because that’s what I was raised around,” Caleb said. “I try to hold myself to that because when I was there, when my dad was there at Oklahoma, they went to national championships, they went to Big 12 championships, so that’s what I knew. I knew I wanted to be on that caliber of play one day.”

Having lived a mostly nomadic childhood as his family traversed the country, middle-school-aged Caleb settled into a routine when his family landed at Oklahoma from 2005-09. It was where his parents met — while working on a group project in a sociology class, Tina said — and graduated.

Since both of his parents are from Dallas, the extended family was just a three-hour drive away from Norman. The small town was buzzing with big stars such as Blake Griffin and Adrian Peterson, who were both playing at OU during that time.

“Oklahoma is a great state, but I always say the University of Oklahoma is the front porch of the state,” Chris said.

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Caleb made good friends, many of them being the kids of other coaches. While their dads coached games, they snuck away to the practice field behind the stadium and played football. They went swimming at each other’s houses.

The five seasons — because Tina measures everything in seasons and not years — is tied for the longest they’ve ever been in one place during Chris’ 25-year coaching career.

“That was where I found myself,” Caleb said. “That was when I started figuring stuff out.”

Eventually Chris, then the defensive line coach for the Sooners, was offered a defensive coordinator job at Mississippi State.

“Dad was a bad guy for a while,” Chris said of the move with a chuckle.

The family, which includes younger sister Colby, who is now a freshman soccer player at Eastern Washington, was in Starkville, Miss., for three seasons. Then Athens, Ga., for one. Then L.A. for two before Chris was hired by the Eagles. By that time, Caleb had gone to three different high schools in three different states and started college at USC, where his dad coached at the time.

Due to his coaching career, Chris hasn’t been able to attend many of Caleb’s UCLA games. The redshirt junior has blossomed into one of the top tight ends in the conference and a John Mackey Award watch list nominee, despite missing seven games due to a foot injury. He’s excited to have his dad, whose Eagles open the NFL season on Thursday, in the stands this weekend.

“For him to see his son play on the same field that he played on, I think that’s just going to be one of the coolest feelings I’ve been a part of,” Caleb said.

The elder Wilson said watching his son take the field at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium will be a combination of nostalgia and excitement. The whole family, which includes the extended family in Dallas, is happy to ditch their crimson-and-cream for blue-and-gold Saturday.

“These are longtime Norman, Oklahoma, fans that are going to be cheering for him,” Tina said. “They don’t care about OU on that day because they are truly Caleb Wilson fans.”

Thuc Nhi Nguyen has covered UCLA for the Southern California News Group since 2016. A proud Seattle native, she majored in journalism and mathematics at the University of Washington. She likes graphs, animated GIFs and superheroes.